84 
CAGK AND SINGING BIRDS. 
have been found there to this day^ had not their beauty 
and melody attracted the attention of bird-catchers, who 
hunted them so assiduously, that not a single specimen was 
left in the island. From Italy the birds soon found their 
way into France and Germanj^, from the latter of which 
countries, and the Tyrol, we now derive our principal supply. 
Canary breeding- and teaching- is there conducted on a very 
large scale, and in accordance with well-established rules ^ 
and principles; and persons from those countries annually' 
visit England with trained songsters, which letch from five 
shillings to a guinea or more each. 
The breeding of these birds is also carried on to a con- 
siderable extent in this country 3 and very many fine birds, 
possessing all the requisites of song, shape, and plumage, to 
perfection, are every year produced by those, chiefly me- 
chanics and small tradesmen, who devote their attention to 
the subject. The birds which carry off the prizes at the 
annual canary shows held in London in the month of No- 
vember or December, when the birds of that year are what 
is called moulted oft* clean," and are in full feather — are 
usually home-bred. Canary societies have existed in this^ 
country for upwards of a century, but it is only within the 
last fifty years that they have, like the floral and other 
societies, had annual shows and competitions for prizes. 
Their canons of criticism may be thus briefly summed up. 
They recognise two grand divisions in show canaries, that is, 
"gay birds," or " gay spangles," and fancy," or "mealy 
birds," the first being plain, most like the original stock, and 
the last, variegated; this also includes the ^^jonques," or 
"jonquils," as the yellow birds are technically called : the 
varieties of these two grand divisions are almost innu- 
merable, nearly every year producing a new one, which, like 
a prize flower, is in high favour, until displaced by some 
fresher beauty. Every season has its fashionable bird, as 
well as its fashionable bonnet ; and a proud man is he who 
has bred, or who owns the favourite for the time being : this 
prize bird is usually selected as the model for the next 
year's show, and extraordinary pains are taken by the 
breeders to produce one which shall equal, if not excel, the 
feathered champion in its good points ; this, at all events, is 
a more innocent kind of rivalry than horse-racing, or cock- 
